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Born 1982 in The Netherlands and based in Israel. Sharon is an international
Choreographer, teacher and dancer. Mother of Lavie (7) and Live (4). She founded her project-based company in 2012 and developed the creative practice Speaking Bodies.
Vazanna was artist in residence at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, 2023-2024.
Sharon and her team performed across Europe and USA in diverse festivals and venues, among them: The KORZO Theatre - The Hague, 92Y - New York, Sibenik Dance Festival- Croatia, Konzert Theatre Festival Bern, Switzerland, Energie De Tel Aviv Festival - Milan.
Her creations and productions are supported by International and Israeli funds among them The Israeli Ministry of Culture, The Schusterman Foundation - USA, Running Up The Hill Residency Center - Italy, ilDance- Sweden, The Lottery Foundation, The Tel Aviv City Municipality and The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
Vazanna is winner of The Ministry of Culture Artistic Dance Award for Young Choreographers 2019.
In 2017 Vazanna was commissioned by the Delattre Dance Company in Mainz, Germany. She was an artist in residence as part of a program made possible by the Israel Institute and the Schusterman Foundation at The Muhlenberg College, Pennsylvania in 2016.
Vazanna holds an M.A. in Choreography from the Jerusalem Dance Academy (2016). Graduate of the Rotterdam Dance Academy (B.A. 2004), Vazanna was a dancer at the Cullberg Ballet in Sweden and the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Israel. She worked with Choreographers Johan Inger, Crystal Pite, Alexander Ekman, Mats Ek, Anouk Van Dijk, Idan Sharabi, Idan Cohen and others.
Sharon teaches contemporary dance and repertoire in diverse educational institutes among them: The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, The Thelma Yellin School Of The Arts, City Contemporary Dance Company Hong Kong, The Kibbutzim College and The Pro-Mornings- open classes for professional dancers at The Suzanne Dellal Dance Center in Tel Aviv.
In an enclosed and defined space, two women are trying once and again to change familiar rules of citation that are rooted in their body. In their action they are deconstructing paradigms they are trapped in. They ask to call for an individual movement of exception and refraction of cultural habits through which they invite the spectator to a renewed visit in their soul. The creation is shiftingbetween spaces of abstract and concrete and between the universal and the local.
The swing rocks and livens the heart with pleasure and joy, and at the same time is dizzying and causes nausea. Four characters in a room with no ability to escape, expose a new dimension of observation on what is happening within them: between their body and its environment, between their body and their soul, and between their souls and themselves.
The creation examines the notions of motherhood and family and points to the complexity of the human experience from a desire to illuminate the possibility of containing the obscure, vague and constantly changing.
"The stage poses many hardships on the dancers but only there, rather than in broad light, can the otherness in all its shapes be fully represented" Ora Brafman | Dance Talk
Three go into battle. They are determined to deconstruct and reconstruct ancient images engraved in their bodies and souls since childhood. Their battle for otherness is bloody. The guilt feelings that permeate are poisonous. They are expected to adjust at all costs. The sacrifice grows into an ulcer that seeks to discharge its pus and be cured. In hope and desire to celebrate new possibilities they try to look back at their past with compassion and compliance.
Dealing with all these challenges the characters walk on a thin line between the comic and the tragic as the fluid movement between ages, worlds and gender is revealed.
The creation premiered at Curtain Up Festival 2019, artistic directors Itzik Galili, Mate Moray.
HIGH - The Official Trailer
"With the creation HIGH, Vazanna once again affirms her perspective as a powerful female artist."
Ori Linkinski / The Jerusalem Post
The piece presents different situations of courting, seduction, and the search for attention and love. It examines feelings of excitement and momentary freedom in the nightlife.
The creation premiered at The Jaffa to Agripas Events, artistic director Elad Schechter - C.A.T.A.M.O.N Dance Group in Jerusalem.
MASTER CLASS - Speaking Bodies
Sharon Vazanna's work extends beyond the stage through Academic courses teaching, Workshops, Master Classes, Residencies and Commissions by bringing her creative process and her dance pedagogy to schools and dance companies internationally.
Teaching Concept
As a creative artist I wish to work with dancers who have diverse creative and personal qualities side by side with advanced physical capabilities and technical proficiency. In my work with young artists, I strive to develop in them these very qualities.
As teacher of contemporary dance I believe that my task is to develop in my students not only their physical and expressive capabilities but also their personalities and individuality. I equip them with a variety of tools which will enhance them as dancers and enable them to engage in a professional career with independent choreographers, in professional dance companies, or in any other direction they wish to take in the field.
I aim to develop enhanced and versatile dancers, as well as focus the work on intentions and qualities of movement. The goal is to integrate and make connections between technique and performative aspects.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2024 City Contemporary Dance Company, Hong Kong
2023 - 2024 The Hong Kong Academy For Performing Arts, Hong Kong
2019 - 2023 The Thelma Yellin School of the Arts, Israel
2023 Kibbutzim College, Tel Aviv, Israel
2019 Fresco - Yoram Carmi Dance Company, Israel
2019 Aterballeto Dance Company, Italy
2018 Boris Eifman Academy, Saint Petersburg, Russia
2018/2019 NOD Dance Education Program, Turin, Italy
2017 Codarts, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2016 Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA
2011 - 2016 Alef Dance School for The Arts, Tel Aviv, Israel
2012 - 2015 The Jerusalem Dance Academy, Jerusalem, Israel
2010 - 2014 The Professional Dancers Education Program Bikurei Ha'itim, Tel Aviv
2007/2014 The Professional Dancers Education Program, Kibbutz Ga'aton, Israel
2010 The Dance and Theatre Academy Bytom, Poland
2008 The Danish National School for Contemporary Dance, Denmark
